I have installed MySql on my PC and I was trying to run the program by going to the command prompt typing:

C:\>net start mysql

it says
The MySql service has started successfully.

the problem is that the command prompt doesn't read mysql> but still reads C:\>

What is the problem here and how can I correct it...

--

As well...what specifically can I use MySql for? I have a website that I'm trying to learn a lot of things through to make my resume more beefy and to make myself more marketable...What do you all suggest?

Thanks,
b-jazzy

By using net start mysql you start the mysql service and not the mysql (mysql>)
To use de mysql client you should simply use mysql [options ...]

To clarify: the MySQL "service" is a program that runs all the time, in the background, and its purpose is to carry out the requests that it receives from anyone and everyone.

There's another program, a client program, which is used to submit requests to the service.

So if fifty people are using your MySQL system at the same time:

• There is one copy of the service, running on one computer.
• There are fifty copies of the client-program, each one running on the personal computer of the people who are using MySQL at this moment.

(Notice that I'm assuming that those people aren't, say, using the database through a web-page or something.)

Now, what's the advantage of this? Whizz-z-z-z-z! Smack! Smoo-o-osh! Oops, incoming meterorite! One of your poor users just got smashed. Or at least his computer did. But fortunately it wasn't the computer that's running the service, so your database was not affected in the slightest. All of the critical operations of actually updating the database files are performed only by the service, only on that one machine.